California air regulators on Friday approved first-in-the-nation rules to ban the sale of new diesel big rig trucks statewide by 2036.
The rules approved unanimously by the California Air Resources Board also require companies in California with more than 50 trucks to convert their truck fleets to zero-emission vehicles by 2042.
The historic vote to require new trucks to run on electricity or hydrogen fuel cells — sending diesel the way of leaded gasoline — is the latest step in the slow, but steady phase-out of fossil fuels in California, designed to reduce smog and greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. Last year, the air board, most of whose 16 members are appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, voted to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-burning passenger vehicles in California in 2035.
“This is an absolutely transformative rule to clean our air and mitigate climate change,” said Liane Randolph, chair of the board.
Industry groups opposed the rules and said they are unreasonably far-reaching.
They noted there are currently only there are only 1,943 zero emission medium and heavy-duty vehicles on the road in California today, according to the California Energy Commission. Of those, 1,369 are school and city buses, 306 are trucks and 268 are delivery trucks.
Batteries take up more weight on a truck, can limit its range, and take 2 to 4 hours to charge, trucking industry leaders said.
“CARB has outright ignored the nation’s leading fleets and has put forth an overly ambitious, unrealistic, and unfeasible proposal,” said Eric Sauer, CEO of the California Trucking Association.
The rules, Sauer added “will guarantee a complete dismantling of our state’s trucking industry and have detrimental effect on goods movement and the entire supply chain.”
Environmental groups praised the rules as critical to reducing air pollutants like diesel soot, which particularly impacts low-income neighborhoods around ports and rail yards in places like Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach, and families who live along freeways.
They noted that trucks also are a major source of greenhouse gases, and said that the auto and trucking industry have resisted clean air laws regularly since former Gov. Ronald Reagan established the California Air Resources Board in 1967, only to meet them, and see them adopted later by other states and the federal government.
“I don’t think there’s been a single rule where we haven’t heard the technology isn’t ready the costs are too great, or that it’s not the right time,” said Will Barrett, national senior director of air advocacy for the American Lung Association. “But the urgency of cleaning our air and confronting the climate crisis can’t wait.”
The rule will affect 1.8 million trucks in California — everything from 18-wheel big rigs to delivery vans, garbage trucks, and so-called drayage trucks that move shipping containers at ports.
The 1.8 million trucks represent only 7% of the vehicles on California’s roads. But they emit 80% of the diesel soot and 70% of nitrogen oxides, a key component of smog, from vehicles. Diesel exhaust also contains more than 40 carcinogens.
Supporters of the rule noted that 1.5 million electric vehicles have been sold in California. There were only a few thousand on the roads, mostly owned by hobbyists, when Gov. Jerry Brown set that target in 2012 for 2025. Now electric vehicles make up 21% of the new car purchases in the state and the two top-selling passenger vehicles last year, the Tesla Y and Tesla Model 3, are both electric.
Electric trucks and delivery vans are about a decade behind where electric cars are now. But they are gaining momentum.
In December, the U.S. Postal Service announced it would spend $9.6 billion to buy 60,000 electric mail delivery trucks by 2028, and that it plans to stop buying gas-powered delivery trucks altogether after 2026.
FedEx has said it intends to completely electrify its delivery fleet by 2040. Amazon has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans. Two weeks ago, PepsiCo rolled out 21 electric Tesla semi-trucks at its facility in Sacramento. It said each can drive 400 miles on a 1-hour charge.
California’s new electric truck rules, however, are expected to be a challenge for smaller companies, and for local governments. They asked for a delay of at least four years.
“Electrifying service yards to support an electrified fleet is a much greater undertaking than a simple electricity panel upgrade or some quick trenching in the parking lot,” wrote the California League of Cities, California State Association of Counties and California Special Districts Association, in a letter to the air board April 6. “Upgrading infrastructure, purchasing vehicles, training workforce, and complying with mandated reports is not something local agencies can easily comply with. Inflation and other cost increases have already stretched budgets to their limits.”
Air board members on Friday noted those concerns and said the rules will be revisited in 2025 and 2028. They noted that the state has $3 billion in incentives from Newsom’s budgets to help with purchases of electric chargers, vehicles and related equipment.
“I know there are a lot of issues we have to resolve here. But I’m an optimist,” said Eric Guerra, a member of the air board. “This is a phased approach. This isn’t happening this week. Some of the legacy trucks are going to be around until 2042.”
Over the past 20 years, as health studies have shown diesel soot to be among the most harmful types of air pollution, with tiny particles that lodge deep into the lungs, exacerbating asthma and emphysema and other respiratory problems, California has steadily cracked down. It has passed rules reducing the sulfur content in diesel fuel by more than 95%. It required cleaner standards for new diesel engines. And it has required trucks to undergo smog checks the same as cars.
In a related note, on Thursday, the air board approved new rules requiring railroads in California to stop using diesel locomotive engines that are more than 23 years old by 2030.
